Rain Drops
by White Compass
Summary: Set anywhere during the first 3 seasons. Kate and Jack are in the jungle. Will the combination of a fight and the torrential rain bring them closer or farther apart?


Declaimer: I do not own the characters, just using them for some fun, and I will return them….prettily unharmed, just a bit worse for the use.

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**Rain's Drops**

It had happened again.

Someone was missing and Jack felt it was his responsibility to make sure he would come back to the camp unharmed. Kate saw him took off into the jungle and followed to convince him it wasn't such a great idea to just go wandering about, without a clue to what had happened, and like usual Jack didn't listen.

So she decided to follow him. Jack was a great doctor, but to tell the truth he didn't have any "special ability" in the field of tracking.

"Jack, are you sure he went this way?" she asked, looking around for any sign a person had been there.

"He went this way" he answered stubbornly.

"There isn't any trail… and it would be dark pretty soon…." she said, still looking around.

"You didn't have to come if you didn't want to, Kate" he said and took off again.

"Hey, what's the matter with you?"

He didn't answer. Just went on walking.

"Hey Jack, I'm talking to you!"

Lately she couldn't get him anymore. At moments he seemed to be mad at her, not even able to stand to have her nearby, other times he was just as sweet as he could possibly be.

He stopped and turned around to face her, his face just inches from hers. She stooped and just stood, like petrified, not knowing what was coming and what to do.

"You didn't want to find Steve, Kate, you just came along to bring me back, and who care what'll happen to the guy!" he shouted

"Hey!" she shouted back "All I was saying is that it is of no avail if we get lost into the jungle, too. There's no trail to follow, what are we supposed to do?"

"Clearly go back, Kate" he said sarcastically

She stood there, looking him in the eyes.

"I'm going back" she stated after a long pause "please, come back with me".

"Yeah, go. Run. You're pretty good at that!" she couldn't believe he said that. It hurts more than she'd expected, and she stood there, eyeing him like an idiot.

Than it all happened in an instant, like usual.

One moment it was hot and sunny, the next it was raining like it wanted to flood the whole place, and they were soaking wet in an instant.

While Kate wanted to stop somewhere for shelter, Jack suggested that it would be better to go back to the camp.

"You wanted to get back a minute ago! We shouldn't be too far away from the hatch" Jack shouted to be heard over the rain.

"Jack, it's raining too much, I can't see a thing. I don't even know where the hatch is!" she tried to reason with him. It just seemed he wanted to contradict her, whatever thing she said.

He looked around himself for a moment and then took off, following the path at his right "It's this way".

"Jack…" she called as she run off after him.

"Slow down!" She almost couldn't see with this much rain, and this part of the jungle seemed particularly thick.

She stopped a moment, trying to catch her breath, when she heard a thud and saw Jack trip over and fall to the ground.

"Jack!" she shouted when she didn't see him get up.

She run at full speed over the mud and the fallen wet leaves. She saw him on the ground, but before she could reach him her foot slipped and she fell down, but for her the ground didn't arrive quite so soon as it had for Jack earlier.

Jack had knocked himself unconscious, so he didn't even hear Kate scream his name as she fell from the cliff, several feet below.

A few drops of water, all that lasted of the heavy storm, fell from a leaf on Jack's face, slowly waking him up. He didn't know how much time had passed, but he noticed it wasn't raining anymore. Instead now the sun was shining.

He touched his aching head groaning and took a look around. "Kate?" he called.

Nothing.

"Kate?" he shouted louder.

It was impossible that she had returned to the hatch leaving him there. Even if they had had that fight earlier it wasn't like her at all to just leave him there in the jungle, unconscious!

He got to his feet and took another look around.

His eyes traveled around and he noticed a piece of blue cloth on the ground. It was a piece of tore fabric that reminded him of the shirt Kate was wearing. Jack kneeled to pick it up. Then he slowly looked up to see the cliff's edge in front of him.

With his breath caught in his throat he reached its edge, and there she was, lying on the ground, motionless.

Jack was too far to see if she had any serious injuries…or if she was still breathing at all.

"Kate!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice full of worry. All the things said before forgotten now.

"Kate, I'm coming" he said again, looking for some way to descend.

He reached her in a few seconds. She was lying on her side and he noticed she was out cold, but as he felt for a pulse he was relieved to found one.

The next thing he noticed was the blood. Thick crimson blood shed around her upper body, but he couldn't see where it came from.

"Kate, wake up" he stroked her hair away from her face "I'm sorry. Wake up, please!"

He was afraid to move her, in case there were damages to the spinal column or internal bleeding.

Some minutes passed and she didn't wake up. Jack, his expression full of dread, started examining her body for any signs of injuries, trying to move her as little as possible. Miraculously she didn't appear to have any broken bones. Her left ankle was red and swollen, but some days rest should work just fine to set it all right.

As he touched her side, Kate groaned a little.

"Hey, Kate" he smiled "come on now, open your eyes" he pleaded, hope returning into him.

She took a sharp intake of breath and closed her eyes tighter in an expression of pain, but it lasted only a moment. The next one she was flapping her eyelids in an attempt to keep them open.

"Jack…" she groaned, shifting slightly.

"Hey" he smiled, nervous and happy at the same time.

Kate tried to move, but the pain stopped her. She cried out and Jack eased her down again.

"What happened?" she asked after waiting a few seconds for the pain to pass.

"You tell me. I woke up to find you down here"

She slowly looked up at the cliff, recalling in her head the events before the fall "I slipped" she simply stated.

Now that she had moved a bit, Jack noticed a big gash on her shoulder, probably from where all the blood came from.

Kate flinched as Jack touched it.

"Sorry" he apologized "It looks pretty deep. I should have a look at it".

"Can you get up?" he asked

She tried to move, but only sitting up seemed painful enough. As she moved it felt as if someone had blow the wind out of her. She breathed out a sigh and let herself fall back, gritting her teeth as her back touched the ground again.

"I'll carry you" Jack offered.

Kate gave a light nod as she swung her arms around his shoulders and Jack secured her there with a piece of rope he carried in his backpack. She grunted as Jack moved her, but didn't complain. With some difficulty Jack managed to position her body on his back. She was so light he barely even knew she was there.

Slowly and very carefully he managed to get on the top of the cliff again and started walking in the direction of the hatch as fast as he could.

A faint whimpering sound escaped Kate's lips unintentionally, and Jack heard it.

"Don't be afraid, everything will be fine" he tried to reassure her, make her feel at ease.

"I…I'm…not afraid…Jack…you're here…" managing to speak seemed to become more and more difficult "I trust you", she whispered.

Her eyes were closed now and her words came out a little confused in between breaths, but Jack heard them all right. She trusted him. She trusted he would be able to cure her, to take care of her. She trusted him with her life! An involuntary smile escaped Jack's lips.

He run, looking for anything that looked familiar, finally spotting a particular place he seemed to remember.

"Hold on Kate, we're almost there" he told her.

She didn't respond.

"Kate?" he called.

He turned his head so that his cheek brushed against her nose and some loose locks of hair. She was unconscious again, but her soft breathing on his neck reassured him that she had just passed out, not something worse.

"Almost there Kate" he repeated, more to reassure himself than anything else.

Less then fifteen minutes later Jack was entering the hatch with a still unconscious Kate on his back. He went straight to the bedroom section and laid Kate gently on the mattress. She moaned and shifted a bit as he let her go, but didn't wake up.

"Sorry" he whispered close to her ear as he gently smoothed her hair away from her face.

Leaving her there just for a few moments, he hurried into the other room to retrieve his stock of medicine and everything.

"Jack, what happened?"

"Nothing Charlie, don't worry, everything's fine" he didn't have time to stop and explain everything to him now, and didn't have the lucidity of mind to do it, too.

"But your shirt's all stained… with blood" Charlie looked at him unsure.

Jack looked down, transfixed. He haven't noticed it. Kate blood must have tickled down her arm and fall on his shirt leaving a large stain on his right side.

"It's not mine" was all he could give for an answer, still looking at it. Seeing her blood on himself scared him most than all that had happened until now.

"Then who's blood is it?" he inquired, a little edgy.

Jack mumbled something and, grabbing a few things, hurried back in the bedroom.

"Hey, Jack. Who's blood is it?" Charlie asked again following Jack.

"Oh bollocks" he exclaimed, seeing Kate lying on the bed "Is she…?"

"She'll be fine!"

"Okay" he still eyed her unsure.

"Charlie, if you want to be useful bring me some clean towel"

"Ok, towel" he repeated, stopping nervously biting his nails and hurrying into the bathroom.

"Bring a wet one too" Jack shouted from the other room

Jack heard him tumble in the bathroom.

"Okay, okay" Charlie moved as fast as he could to take everything Jack had told him to.

He returned with a bunch of towel. Jack took first the wet one and, rolling up her short sleeve, gently started dabbing Kate's wounded shoulder with it. She winced as he applied more pressure to clean the area close to the cut.

"Shhh" he caressed her head with his free hand, and she turned her face toward it in her sleep "It's all right, it's everything alright" he whispered.

Now that he had cleaned all the blood, he could take a better look at the cut. It was pretty deep indeed.

"Jack…" her head was turned to the other side, but she knew anyway that Jack was there.

He put a hand to her head, and she slowly opened her eyes turning around to face him "I'm here" he smiled at her.

"Jack….it's cold in here" her voice was weak.

"It's the blood loss Kate, it gives this feeling" he explained.

She watched him while he was rummaging into his backpack, obviously looking for something. He picked un a brown bottle and wetted a clean piece of cloth with the peroxide.

Gently but firmly grabbing her arm with his hand he stopped before applying the disinfectant on her wound "This will sting a bit" he said apologetically. She nodded for him to go on and he pressed it to her shoulder.

Kate bit her lower lip gasping, but didn't move nor said a thing, she just kept her eyes staring ahead. Jack looked at her and a thin smile escaped his lips. She wouldn't admit pain even now, like if it was a sign of weakness…that was his Kate!

"Done" he announced, putting the cloth aside.

He kept examining her shoulder, though "But I'm afraid it need stitches".

"Oh…but it's fine, it's just a little scratch…" she lied, sounding worried.

Jack just glared at her, his eyes clearly telling her that he wasn't buying one bit of what she was saying.

"Really Jack, just give me a bandage and I'll be fine" he still didn't say a thing, just moved his head to the side looking amused. "look, I can move it all right, see" she tied to convince him, but her actions soon denied her words as she felt a sharp pain as soon as she lifted her arm a bit too fast. She breathed in some air, fast, and closed her eyes tight.

Jack slowly eased her arm back down.

"It's not that deep…" she tried to protest one more time.

"Kate, I can almost see the bone there" he insisted.

She looked sheepishly down, defeated "Fine" she accepted, giving in.

She watched Jack with concern while he produced from his backpack a small blue box she recognized from the first day on the island. He opened the box with the sewing stuff and looked at her.

"Any color preference?" he asked with a smile

She gave a little nervous laugh, remembering she had asked him the same thing, and like him she answered,

"Standard black's fine"

He cleaned his hands with alcohol, and did the same with the needle and thread. When he was ready he put his left hand on her arm to both reassure her and keep her still.

She watched him with a worried look on her face as he started to sew the two pieces of the cut back together. Her eyes fell on her shoulder just for a moment, and then she turned quickly to the other side so she didn't have to watch it. When he put the first stitch in Kate gritted her teeth, but she strangely noticed that it wasn't much the needle that bothered her, at least not as much as the thread that had to pass a long way through her skin and muscle to be secured, just to start it all over again when he put the next one in.

Jack continued his job, feeling her arm starting to tremble by the time he had put the ninth stitch in. Her hand was closed into a tight fist, so tight that she could feel her short nails scratching the palm of her hand, and her knuckle were white as a sheet of paper. He didn't like the idea of causing her pain, but couldn't just leave her wound open like that either.

"Hey, you ok?" he asked in a soft voice

Kate kept her lips pressed tight together like if she was afraid she might scream if she opened them to answer, and just nodded a quick yes. Her eyes were pressed shut too, and as Jack continued to stitch her up he could see a couple of tears starting to form there and freely running down her cheeks.

"Jack, please stop" she pleaded in a weak voice when it seemed like she couldn't take it anymore.

"I know that hurts Kate, but we're almost done" he reassured her

She closed her eyes crying silently.

"What's going on here?" Charlie, attracted by the noise, poked his head into the room "Oh bloody hell!" he exclaimed covering his eyes and grimacing as he saw the scene in front of him.

Jack, already uncomfortable at having to do this without the proper equipment, got even more aggravated at Charlie's interruption. In the other room a distant beeping sound was starting to fill the room.

"Charlie…the button, please!" he demanded.

Charlie opened his eyes a little, looking at Jack with confusion.

"Go push the button!" he ordered again, and at that Charlie flew to the other room almost relieved to do his much easier job.

Jack finished with the last couple of stitches and cut the thread.

"See, all done" he assured Kate.

She sighed and, turning around to face Jack, gave him a relieved look.

"Thanks" her voice was weak and shaky and Kate thought that her eyelids had never felt so heavy. She was fighting to keep awake.

Jack noticed and, putting a reassuring hand on her waist, he was going to suggest her to have a few hours' sleep, when she flinched. Jack moved his hand around on her waist, and when she moaned again he took it off and started examining the area.

He pressed his hand over her side, asking "does it hurt here?" every now and then, moving his fingers a few inches every time.

He scanned the whole area of her abdomen. The pain concentrated mainly on her right side, the side that took most of her fall, and he finished his examination judging that she must have one or two broken ribs. He had no x-ray machine, but he guessed that if she wasn't in any major pain it meant that the organs nearby weren't damaged by the fall nor by the broken ribs. It was nothing that couldn't be cured with a few week's rest. Of course, she should keep still, and Jack sighed knowing that that was going to be the hardest part. He picked up a bandage, and started wrapping Kate's abdomen in it, to keep it as still as possible.

The rush of adrenaline provoked by her injuries that had kept her awake as Jack examined her ribs subsided as soon as he was done with that. Her eyes flickered a few times.

"Sorry Jack" she said in a small voice.

"Why is that?" he asked, while carefully lifting her up a little so that his arm could pass the bandage all around her body.

"Sorry for giving you all this trouble and so much more work to do…." Her voice was becoming almost a whisper now.

"Don't even think about it, Kate. It's no…" he started, but when he turned to look at her she had already drifted off into a deep sleep.

Jack smiled "Goodnight Kate".

Kate slept peacefully almost through the whole night. She woke up pretty early in the morning disturbed by an heavy sweat all over her body.

As soon as she opened her eyes she noticed how clearly she could see all the things in the room even if the light was turned off. She looked around the room slowly, keeping her head still and moving just her eyes. Jack wasn't next to her anymore, but all his stuff was still there. A towel and the sewing box were left on a little table at the back of the room, while a bottle with some white pills next to it was on the shelf next to the bed. A couple of mangos and a glass of water were there too.

The next thing she was aware of was her body. Turning her head to the side a bit she noticed a big white bandage around her upper arm and shoulder. She tried to move, but a pain in her midsection stopped her. Her hands traveled up at her waist. She winced at the contact and kept the pressure on the spot till the pain slowly subsided. She noticed Jack had wrapped a tight bandage all around her midsection, probably to prevent her from twisting around too much, and for the moment she accepted the suggestion. She moved her toes to check if her legs were ok. Nothing wrong there apart an hot sensation around her left ankle. She tried to lift it up to be able to see what it was, but a shot of pain told her that it would be a bad idea.

"Ok, no movement for now" she gave herself a little remainder of what she'd discovered so far.

She turned her head toward the door, thinking that probably someone was on shift for the hatch, and she should probably gave voice that she was awake. Looking toward the door put again the glass of water directly in her line of vision, and she noticed how thirsty she was. Her throat felt totally dry.

Very slowly she lifted her right hand and took hold of the glass, but as she was bringing it to her mouth her arm trembled and the glass fell to the floor with a loud thud, spreading the water all over the floor.

"Damn" she cursed.

Alerted by the noise, Jack hurried back into the bedroom.

"Hi" Kate said weakly as she saw him entering

"Hi". There was relieve in his eyes. Relieve she was awake, relieve she was apparently well and talking.

"What happened" he asked seeing the glass on the floor.

"Thirsty" she managed to say.

Jack nodded. "Ok, you don't move, I'll go and bring a fresh glass of water".

He was back in an instant with the glass he promised. He very gently helped her into a sitting position and held the glass for her. She took a few sips and then started to lie down again.

"Wait, swallow one of those first" Jack held her up and opened the box of white pills that was next to her pillow. "They'll make sure that your wound won't get infected". He handed the antibiotic pill and the glass to her.

Kate never liked doctors nor medicines, but this was Jack, and she didn't want to disappoint him. She took the pill, held it in between her fingers for a while and then threw it in her mouth. Jack held the glass out for her, and she took another sip of water, swallowing the antibiotic, before putting it away.

She laid slowly down, moaning as she stretched the sore muscle of her abdomen. She put both her hands on her stomach closing her eyes and waiting for the dizziness do go away.

"Jack…" she called when the felling didn't pass. "I don't feel very well"

"What is it?" he asked, fast becoming concerned.

"My head's dizzy" she took a big breath before continuing "and I feel like I'm gonna throw up any minute now". She was taking slow and deep breaths, trying to make both feelings go away, but without success.

He said something trying to reassure her, but it seemed just so difficult for Kate to focus on his voice right now. All the words he said just sounded like a distant babbling to her.

She looked him straight in the eyes for a moment "It's really cold in here Jack!".

"No it's not…" he started, but then he noticed for the first time that her body was shaking really bad under the blankets. Her forehead was sweating profusely and putting his hand on her head he noticed how hot she was.

It all seemed the beginning of a really bad fever, probably as a result of her injuries.

"Hey, hey Kate, it's ok, it's ok" he repeated a few times, smoothing her hair away from her face.

He knew that after what had happened to her, it was possible that a fever was just the way her body had to fight an infection, but this was Kate, and it scared him the fact that if she got worse he couldn't just bring her to the nearest hospital.

When he looked down at her again she had passed out.

Jack spent the whole night at her side. He didn't leave her a moment.

He had put some extra blankets on the bed to help her sweat the fever away and kept constantly wet a cloth he had put on her forehead.

She moaned sometime as she turned around in her sleep, but didn't woke up, not once, and that worried Jack a bit.

During the whole night he slept maybe just a couple of hours or less. He kept himself busy around her, 'couse the thought of just having to sit there and do nothing was driving him crazy. He kept the cloth on her forehead fresh, wetting it every quart of an hour. He cleaned her shoulder's wound and put fresh bandages on it. He even re-dressed the bandages around her sprained ankle.

He was worried sick, but he tried hard to hold himself up. He thought that if he would let go just for a moment he wouldn't be able to pull himself back together again.

As the morning came, Jack hoped that she would wake up, but the day went on without that happening.

Around midday Locke poked his head into the room "Any changes yet?" he asked

"Nothing" Jack looked miserable, with dark circle surrounding his eyes.

"I'm sure she'll be fine" Locke encouraged "Here, I brought you some fresh fruit and fish. You two should both eat something. It won't be good if you collapse on your patient " he left the food on a table and went to the other room to do his job.

Jack couldn't get to feed her with anything. The fever was still pretty high, and she was moaning and turning around a lot in her sleep. The sweating was still as bad as before, indicating that the fever hadn't broke down yet, and she was taking big sharp breaths with her mouth.

During the next couple of days Jack didn't leave the hatch for a moment. Hell, he almost didn't leave the bedroom for a moment. People came by to see how she was doing, and Sun and Charlie tried to get Jack to rest a bit, offering to wait on Kate for him, but they just succeeded in keeping him away for three or for hours, and then, after a quick sleep, he was back at her side.

The second night the fever seemed to have subsided a bit. She was still pretty hot, but she didn't toss around that much, and Jack was able to feed her some of the fruit.

"Please Kate, wake up" he pleaded her, as he circled figures on her hand with his fingers.

He had been asking her to wake up every day, over and over.

His hands were covering hers and he had put his head to rest on them, his eyes closed. As he held her hand tight between his, he suddenly felt it move a bit, not really squeezing his, more like just stretching her fingers out, but it was much more of an answer then he had had in those past two days.

He lifted his head to look at her.

"Hey Kate" he called, his voice full of hope again.

She moaned and turned her head slightly toward him. Her eyes were still closed but her breathing had chanced lightly.

"I'm so sorry! Open your eyes and I will do anything" he said stroking her forehead. He noticed her temperature had lowered down a bit. Not completely but considerably.

She opened her mouth slightly, feeling it dry and wetting her lips a bit "Anything?" she finally managed to say.

Her voice was hoarse and her throat felt terribly sore for lack of use, but she was awake and speaking.

He let out his short nervous laugh and held on her hand tighter. She smiled weakly and very slowly started to open her eyes.

"Hey Jack" her green eyes looked into his brown's ones, adjusting to the light for a few moment. "I think you look worse than I do" she noted weakly.

Jack passed one of his hands through his hair while the other one was still gripping hers, and gave a short laugh.

"Yeah, I probably don't look pretty good right now!" he admitted

"How're you feeling?" he asked, checking her vitals.

"Sore, weak, throat's dry" she wetted her lips again before continuing "apart from that I'm great!" she joked

"Good. If you can make jokes it means you're recovering" he stated with a fake professional air "and it would be about time" he added joking too, forgetting all the worry of the past days now that she was with him.

"Have you been here…" she asked all of a sudden, serious "the whole time?"

Jack looked in her eyes and smiled. Gosh, it was so good to finally be able to see them again. He bent closer, just inches away from her face "Yeah" he finally admitted.

"Hey, she's awake. You're awake!" exclaimed Charlie, who had been attracted to the room by their voices.

"How're you feeling?" he asked, smiling

"Great" she gave a small smile to the over excited English guy.

"Fantastic" echoed Charlie

Jack was looking at him too. Should he always be the one on duty when he was in the hatch, he wondered. Charlie noted him staring.

"What?" he asked

"Nothing Charlie" he answered with patience but smiling at his comical expression.

The englishman watched from one to the other "Ohh, you two wanted some privacy?" he stated out loud.

Kate face reddened more then when she had the high fever, and Jack looked at his feet finding them extremely interesting all of a sudden.

When they didn't answer he smiled widely "Ok, I'll be over there if you need me" he said, returning in the kitchen area crunching some cereal. He had to tell that to Hurley as soon as he saw him, he thought. The big guy owned him 20 bucks now!

Kate looked at Jack, grinning because of Charlie.

"So, are you hungry?" he asked getting up from the chair he had put next to the bed that had been his resting place for the past few days. "I can cook you something" he offered, changing subject.

"I'd like some water first, please"

Jack handed her a bottle of water "Hey, hey, drink slowly. If you're gulping it down like that you're gonna choke"

Like if on clue she coughed some of the water out.

"Sip it" he suggested patiently, even if she could see from his face that he had really waned to say 'see, what did I told you?'.

"What can I get you to eat?" he insisted.

"Some fruit would be nice" she accepted.

He was so happy to see her well and talking again. He went into the kitchen and put on a tray some mangos and chocolate chips cookies to bring back to her.

Her recovery proceeded very well during the following days.

He kept her laying down in bed for another day and a half, but then she wouldn't hear any objection and told him that if he wouldn't help her out of that room she'll hit him in the head and then go out by herself.

He helped her stand. Her ankle gave her some trouble, but he stayed at her side, so that she could use his shoulder as a surrogate crutch.

Her broken ribs were healing fine, even if it would take some time to be totally ok. They still give her some trouble, though, especially in the morning sometime she woke up 'couse in her sleep she'd moved too much or too fast and a stab of pain hit her abdomen and she couldn't breath, but the pain was slowly subsiding. For now she could manage to move around a bit using him as a support. She didn't mind that much, and he seemed not to mind it either.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jack had left her sleeping a few hours ago, and he took the chance to finally take a long nap too. When he had waken up he soon saw that she was no longer in her bed. He checked the bathroom first, but it was empty. Coming into the kitchen he was starting to get more and more worried when he saw her standing near the hatch door, trying to silently open it.

Kate slowly turned around with a comical 'oh shit I got caught' guilty expression on her face.

"Jack…I…humm…I was just…" she tried to justify herself.

"You were just sneaking out!" he pointed out.

Kate saw no point in deny it now "Yeah" she said sheepishly.

"Couldn't you just wait for me? I'll walk you"

"Jack, I'm not an invalid, I'm fine now" she pointed out, a little aggravated by his unnecessary care "It's been over a week"

"Well, haven't seen yet any broken bone setting in just a week" he pointed out smartly.

"Look, I'm just gonna walk a bit outside. I can use the fresh air!"

He noticed now the look on her face. She needed desperately to go out, smell the fresh air. Since the accident he had helped her walk around, but always inside the hatch, never outside. Considering the precarious conditions of her ankle and ribs, he didn't want to risk her going out and hurt herself more seriously over a stupid fall. But he could see now that she was starting to feel caged. She really needed to go out or she would just go crazy. She never could just stay put.

Without saying a word Jack walked over to the hatch door and helped her get it open.

"Let's go" he said, smiling at her.

She smiled back "Thanks".

Kate limped out of the dark space that was the hatch, into a full bright late morning in the jungle. She stood, closing her eyes for a moment and enjoying the feeling of the warm sun rays over her skin and smiled. Gosh it felt so good.

"Everything's ok?" Jack asked

"Yeah"

"Let's go for a walk" then, seeing the worry in his eyes she added "We'll just stay around here. I can do it" she smiled reassuringly at him.

They walked for a while.

"Didn't remember how beautiful it was out here" Kate stated, smiling playfully at Jack.

"Yeah, a real paradise full of everything you could wish for….monsters, polar bears…" he started listing, even if he knew that even if he wouldn't admit it, sometime it seemed just perfect to him too. Like now.

"Oh, c'mon, look around" she grinned, and made a movement with her arms like to show the whole place to Jack. Unfortunately she swung around too fast, and her injured leg didn't quite follow her movement like she'd expected. She tripped over and fell over a root on the ground.

Jack was next to her in no time.

Even if his eyes were screaming 'see, what did I told you?', Kate appreciated that he didn't voice it out loud. She winced a little gritting her teeth and clutching her side as the impact with the hard soil sent a wave of pain through her ribcage. She had shut her eyes, but could feel Jack's hands already checking her for injures. She took a moment to let out a couple of big breaths to help her ease the pain, and than opened her eyes.

"It's ok" she smiled a bit to demonstrate her statement. "I'm fine"

"We should be heading back" Jack suggested, relieved that his examination and her affirmations were compatibles.

He leaned down to pick her up.

"Jack" she stopped him "you said you would do anything"

He seemed confused "What?"

"When I was sleeping. You said that if I opened up my eyes you would do anything" she reminded him, "…I've done my part!"

Yes, he remembered. "Yeah" he agreed "but if you're asking me to quit being protective, I don't know if I could do that"

"I'm not" she leaned closer to him and whispered into his hear "…kiss me" .

He looked taken aback for a second. But then stopped putting all his energy on checking her wounds, and focused on her mouth instead. He leaned over her, and pressing her gently down responded to her wish.

FINIS

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Hope you enjoyed the story! if so...let me know. ;)

Wrote it back in 2007 but didn't have a place to post it back then!

I do no particularly part for a couple or another (I wrote both Skate and Jate stories), I just love the characters individually and I write what feels right at the moment.

Thanks 4 reading


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